If you guys haven’t heard already, ZEE5 managed to obtain the streaming rights for the Indian multi-starrer, ‘RRR‘, a few days ago. This film is one of the most anticipated pan-Indian films of the year and is expected to release in theatres in October 2021, but with the current Covid-19 situation, we could be seeing an unprecedented never seen before direct-to-OTT release on ZEE5. Which hasn’t been attempted by any other streaming platform, except for HBOMax.
‘RRR’ has a massive budget of close to Rs 400 crore and a movie of that mammoth a budget has never made it to any OTT directly for streaming before, except for ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘. The Wonder Woman sequel film, itself had a massive budget of USD 200 million and its direct release on HBOMax last year, is the biggest direct-to-OTT release to date, with parent company Warner Bros. making plans to release other films (of similarly sized budgets) directly on their OTT platform as well.
‘RRR’ has managed to garner interest from people outside India as well and this movie could really help ZEE5’s budding footsteps in the US. The beta version of the streaming platform is already available in the US, so once ‘RRR’s’ streaming date gets set, the official launch of ZEE5 in the US will get an even bigger boost.
‘Baahubali’ is a prime example of how Telugu historical fictional epics appeal to the International audience, and with a well-known cast this time, we expect ‘RRR’ to do just as well in theatres and on ZEE5 in the US. With ZEE5 paying Rupees 300 crores for the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada streaming rights for the film, we will not be surprised if there will be some heavy ‘RRR’ marketing coming up soon, featuring ZEE5 alongside the film promotions, just as prominently.
‘RRR’ is expected to release in theatres on October 13th 2021. Hopefully, the nation will be doing much better by then and the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic will have died down. For now, we will have to wait and see.